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Tretyachenko V, Vymětal J, Neuwirthová T, Vondrášek J, Fujishima K, Hlouchová K. Modern and prebiotic amino acids support distinct structural profiles in proteins. Open Biol 2022; 12:220040. [PMID: 35728622 PMCID: PMC9213115 DOI: 10.1098/rsob.220040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
The earliest proteins had to rely on amino acids available on early Earth before the biosynthetic pathways for more complex amino acids evolved. In extant proteins, a significant fraction of the 'late' amino acids (such as Arg, Lys, His, Cys, Trp and Tyr) belong to essential catalytic and structure-stabilizing residues. How (or if) early proteins could sustain an early biosphere has been a major puzzle. Here, we analysed two combinatorial protein libraries representing proxies of the available sequence space at two different evolutionary stages. The first is composed of the entire alphabet of 20 amino acids while the second one consists of only 10 residues (ASDGLIPTEV) representing a consensus view of plausibly available amino acids through prebiotic chemistry. We show that compact conformations resistant to proteolysis are surprisingly similarly abundant in both libraries. In addition, the early alphabet proteins are inherently more soluble and refoldable, independent of the general Hsp70 chaperone activity. By contrast, chaperones significantly increase the otherwise poor solubility of the modern alphabet proteins suggesting their coevolution with the amino acid repertoire. Our work indicates that while both early and modern amino acids are predisposed to supporting protein structure, they do so with different biophysical properties and via different mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vyacheslav Tretyachenko
- Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague 12843, Czech Republic,Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague 12843, Czech Republic
| | - Jiří Vymětal
- Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague 16610, Czech Republic
| | - Tereza Neuwirthová
- Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague 12843, Czech Republic
| | - Jiří Vondrášek
- Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague 16610, Czech Republic
| | - Kosuke Fujishima
- Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 1528550, Japan,Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Fujisawa 2520882 Japan
| | - Klára Hlouchová
- Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague 12843, Czech Republic,Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague 16610, Czech Republic
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Mancini JA, Pike DH, Tyryshkin AM, Haramaty L, Wang MS, Poudel S, Hecht M, Nanda V. Design of a Fe 4 S 4 cluster into the core of a de novo four-helix bundle. Biotechnol Appl Biochem 2020; 67:574-585. [PMID: 32770861 DOI: 10.1002/bab.2003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2020] [Accepted: 08/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
We explore the capacity of the de novo protein, S824, to incorporate a multinuclear iron-sulfur cluster within the core of a single-chain four-helix bundle. This topology has a high intrinsic designability because sequences are constrained largely by the pattern of hydrophobic and hydrophilic amino acids, thereby allowing for the extensive substitution of individual side chains. Libraries of novel proteins based on these constraints have surprising functional potential and have been shown to complement the deletion of essential genes in E. coli. Our structure-based design of four first-shell cysteine ligands, one per helix, in S824 resulted in successful incorporation of a cubane Fe4 S4 cluster into the protein core. A number of challenges were encountered during the design and characterization process, including nonspecific metal-induced aggregation and the presence of competing metal-cluster stoichiometries. The introduction of buried iron-sulfur clusters into the helical bundle is an initial step toward converting libraries of designed structures into functional de novo proteins with catalytic or electron-transfer functionalities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua A Mancini
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.,Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Douglas H Pike
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Alexei M Tyryshkin
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
| | - Liti Haramaty
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
| | - Michael S Wang
- Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Saroj Poudel
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.,Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Michael Hecht
- Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Vikas Nanda
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA
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Frenkel-Pinter M, Samanta M, Ashkenasy G, Leman LJ. Prebiotic Peptides: Molecular Hubs in the Origin of Life. Chem Rev 2020; 120:4707-4765. [PMID: 32101414 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.9b00664] [Citation(s) in RCA: 148] [Impact Index Per Article: 37.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
The fundamental roles that peptides and proteins play in today's biology makes it almost indisputable that peptides were key players in the origin of life. Insofar as it is appropriate to extrapolate back from extant biology to the prebiotic world, one must acknowledge the critical importance that interconnected molecular networks, likely with peptides as key components, would have played in life's origin. In this review, we summarize chemical processes involving peptides that could have contributed to early chemical evolution, with an emphasis on molecular interactions between peptides and other classes of organic molecules. We first summarize mechanisms by which amino acids and similar building blocks could have been produced and elaborated into proto-peptides. Next, non-covalent interactions of peptides with other peptides as well as with nucleic acids, lipids, carbohydrates, metal ions, and aromatic molecules are discussed in relation to the possible roles of such interactions in chemical evolution of structure and function. Finally, we describe research involving structural alternatives to peptides and covalent adducts between amino acids/peptides and other classes of molecules. We propose that ample future breakthroughs in origin-of-life chemistry will stem from investigations of interconnected chemical systems in which synergistic interactions between different classes of molecules emerge.
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Affiliation(s)
- Moran Frenkel-Pinter
- NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution, https://centerforchemicalevolution.com/.,School of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Mousumi Samanta
- Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel
| | - Gonen Ashkenasy
- Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel
| | - Luke J Leman
- NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution, https://centerforchemicalevolution.com/.,Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, United States
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A Strategy for Combinatorial Cavity Design in De Novo Proteins. Life (Basel) 2020; 10:life10020009. [PMID: 31979320 PMCID: PMC7175167 DOI: 10.3390/life10020009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2019] [Revised: 01/16/2020] [Accepted: 01/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Protein sequence space is vast; nature uses only an infinitesimal fraction of possible sequences to sustain life. Are there solutions to biological problems other than those provided by nature? Can we create artificial proteins that sustain life? To investigate these questions, we have created combinatorial collections, or libraries, of novel sequences with no homology to those found in living organisms. Previously designed libraries contained numerous functional proteins. However, they often formed dynamic, rather than well-ordered structures, which complicated structural and mechanistic characterization. To address this challenge, we describe the development of new libraries based on the de novo protein S-824, a 4-helix bundle with a very stable 3-dimensional structure. Distinct from previous libraries, we targeted variability to a specific region of the protein, seeking to create potential functional sites. By characterizing variant proteins from this library, we demonstrate that the S-824 scaffold tolerates diverse amino acid substitutions in a putative cavity, including buried polar residues suitable for catalysis. We designed and created a DNA library encoding 1.7 × 106 unique protein sequences. This new library of stable de novo α-helical proteins is well suited for screens and selections for a range of functional activities in vitro and in vivo.
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Khrustalev VV, Khrustaleva TA, Poboinev VV, Karchevskaya CI, Shablovskaya EA, Terechova TG. Cobalt(ii) cation binding by proteins. Metallomics 2019; 11:1743-1752. [DOI: 10.1039/c9mt00205g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Herein, a set of non-homologous proteins (238) that could bind the cobalt(ii) cations was selected from all the available Protein Data Bank structures with Co2+ cations.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Tatyana Aleksandrovna Khrustaleva
- Biochemical Group of the Multidisciplinary Diagnostic Laboratory
- Institute of Physiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus
- Minsk, Academicheskaya, 28
- Belarus
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